It seems highly likely that once the technology is there for -- highly spatiotemporally detailed brain scanning -- real-time emulation of brains on tractably expensive hardware
then we will be able to run loads and loads of experiments aimed at creating accurate simulations of parts of the human brain, of the brains of simpler organisms, and so forth. Via this sort of experimentation, I suspect that a strong theoretical understanding of brain dynamics will rapidly emerge. As well as simply via analysis of the brain scan data, which will far exceed in quality anything we have now. So, it may be true that if we were given a good enough brain scanner and good enough hardware tomorrow, we couldn't do WBE the day after. But, I'll be that within a couple years of experimentation, study and theory-development, these tools would facilitate the emergence of functioning WBE. Of course, I can't prove that ... just as no one can prove anything about future technologies. -- Ben G On Wed, Nov 5, 2008 at 11:47 AM, Russell Wallace <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > On Wed, Nov 5, 2008 at 3:27 PM, Bob Mottram <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Brains however are not nearly so sensitive to small errors, and in > > some cases fairly extensive damage can be sustained without causing > > the entire system to fail. > > Let's face it, they're not that insensitive; "some debugging required" > still applies. > > The solution is obvious: we'll have to start with the easy end and > move up to harder problems. Once we have a working, debugged brain > (plus body plus environment) emulation of C. elegans, we'll be ready > to start thinking about fruit flies. > > > ------------------------------------------- > agi > Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now > RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ > Modify Your Subscription: > https://www.listbox.com/member/?&; > Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com > -- Ben Goertzel, PhD CEO, Novamente LLC and Biomind LLC Director of Research, SIAI [EMAIL PROTECTED] "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." -- Robert Heinlein ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=117534816-b15a34 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
